George Osborne has suffered a fresh blow as an opinion poll puts Labour ahead
in the wake of the controversial "granny tax" imposed by the
Chancellor in last week's Budget.

The ICM survey sees a three-point Tory lead in a poll by the same company on the eve of the Budget replaced by a one-point advantage for Ed Miliband's party.

It also shows that several of the Chancellor's key measures, including the £3.3 billion raid on pensioners' allowances and the cutting of the 50p top rate of income tax to 45p, are unpopular with voters.

A massive majority (88 per cent) object to his decision to press ahead with a planned 3p rise in fuel duty this summer – which is predicted to push the price of a litre of unleaded over 150p.

The Budget measures most associated with the Liberal Democrats – including the "mini mansion tax" on sales of properties for more than £2 million and the rise in the income tax threshold to more than £9,000 – win voters' backing.

However, this does not translate into good news for Nick Clegg's party overall, with the Lib Dems falling by two points from last Tuesday to just 13 per cent, the same level as all minor parties combined.

Labour, which called last week's announcement a "Budget for millionaires", is up two on 38 per cent, with the Tories down two points on 37 per cent.

Mr Osborne was criticised last week for leaving the "granny tax" as a "nasty surprise" on Budget day, with most of the other measures already in the public domain.

The tax will leave up to five million middle-class pensioners up to £323 worse off, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Asked whether they support the move overall, 63 per cent of voters disagree – with the figure rising to 64 per cent among pensioners – while less than a quarter of voters (22 per cent) support it.

Tory supporters oppose it by the narrow margin of two per cent, however, with the margin among Labour and Lib Dem voters much wider.

It has also emerged that Lady Bakewell, the Labour peer and TV presenter, is to spearhead an “e-petition” to the Downing Street website calling on ministers to reconsider their “granny tax” plans.

If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures it becomes eligible for debate in the Commons.

“It is fundamentally unfair that the Government is raiding pensioners’ allowances at the same time as cutting tax for the richest one per cent,” she said.

There was little in the Budget to lighten the overall sense of economic gloom, with only eight per cent of those questioned saying they thought they and their families would be better off.

Some 37 per cent believed they would be worse off. Almost half thought their circumstances would remain roughly the same.

Mr Osborne's boldest political move was to axe the 50p top rate of income tax to 45p. This is objected to by 56 per cent of those polled, with 36 per cent supporting it.

His plans for an extra £10 billion of cuts to welfare payments are disliked by 48 per cent, but 40 per cent back them.

Some Budget measures are widely supported, including the 7 per cent rate of stamp duty on the sale of £2 million-plus properties (70 per cent approve), the raising of the income tax threshold to £9,205 (79 per cent) and the extra cut of one percentage point in corporation tax to help businesses (60 per cent).

The Chancellor performed a partial about-turn on earlier plans to strip child benefit from higher-rate income taxpayers. His plan to restrict the payments to households where an earner is on more than £50,000 is backed by 59 per cent, with 36 per cent objecting.

There was another low for Mr Osborne, who announced last week that Sunday trading restrictions would be scrapped for eight weeks this summer.

He is thought to want to remove these permanently – but only 37 per cent of voters agree, with 55 per cent wanting to stick to the current six-hour opening limit for larger shops.

MPs will vote tomorrow on the overall Budget package – with individual votes on different measures scheduled for the coming weeks.

• ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,000 adults aged 18+ by telephone on March 22-23. Some 850 interviews were conducted on land lines, and 150 interviews on mobile phones.